Lets talk about sail/boats.
Maybe somebody can teach me how to get in a 11ft wide slip with a 10' beam sail boat in a river that flows at 10 plus knots. Just so you know I have no problem doing this with a twin screw motor-boat just with a single screw inboard 13,000 lbs sailboat.

Good point but we're sailing solo. yes it helps but even with a good deckhand a spring-line can't be hooked up until 1/3 of the boat is in the slip and at that time the river will want to (has turned) turn the boat sideways down river i.e. you're to late.

Good point but we're sailing solo. yes it helps but even with a good deckhand a spring-line can't be hooked up until 1/3 of the boat is in the slip and at that time the river will want to (has turned) turn the boat sideways down river i.e. you're to late.

I think we need pics or a diagram to really have this discussion, but I had in mind using the springs starting from the end of the finger, perpendicular to it, and then warping into the slip on them from there.

smacky: I think we're talking past each other. You're coming from a philosophical "is it right" or "should she go" perspective. I'm coming from a rule-of-law "does she have the right to do it" perspective. Incidentally, I think we're both right.

At the end of the day - I agree with you that it comes down to the legal question more than anything else. But even this is obviously getting pushed into grayer and grayer areas with the "youngest" craze.

If a kid is not a legal adult, they are the responsibility of the parent (in most societies). And if the kid is solo in a boat at sea for a year facing undeniably substantial risks - alone - without parental supervision - then the parent is an open target for neglect and endangerment charges.

When one of these punks buys it at sea or at the hands of not-nice people, things will go nuclear pretty quickly from a legal and political perspective.

At the end of the day - I agree with you that it comes down to the legal question more than anything else. But even this is obviously getting pushed into grayer and grayer areas with the "youngest" craze.

If a kid is not a legal adult, they are the responsibility of the parent (in most societies). And if the kid is solo in a boat at sea for a year facing undeniably substantial risks - alone - without parental supervision - then the parent is an open target for neglect and endangerment charges.

When one of these punks buys it at sea or at the hands of not-nice people, things will go nuclear pretty quickly from a legal and political perspective.

It's all fun and games until...

I do see your point. Solo circcumnavigation, even with stops and assistance, is serious business. I don't buy for a second that allowing a 14-year-old to do it amounts to endangerment prima facie. But in a world where a burglar can sue a homeowner when he cuts his hand breaking the window so he can steal a TV, I guess anything's possible.

And as I said, I've never suggested that this is a good idea. I've only ever said that she has the right to do it. If someone doesn't like it, then don't let your own 14-year-old do it.

But there are a lot worse things that a teenager can be doing with their time than sailing around the world. Like driving a car in traffic. Or joining street gangs. Or doing drugs. Or getting pregnant. So it's hard for me to get really worked up and animated about how "idiotic" a 'round the world sailing journey is.

Long and short of it is this: she's going, regardless of what anyone else thinks. The decent thing to do is to at least wish her good luck.

If a kid is not a legal adult, they are the responsibility of the parent (in most societies). And if the kid is solo in a boat at sea for a year facing undeniably substantial risks - alone - without parental supervision - then the parent is an open target for neglect and endangerment charges.

When one of these punks buys it at sea or at the hands of not-nice people, things will go nuclear pretty quickly from a legal and political perspective.

Oh, please, keep the legal talk out of it! In most european countries the legal age of consent is between 14 and 16. Obviously they grant their children a little more maturity and ability to make decisions that affect the rest of their lives...
Punks?? That kind of classification should be left for kids hanging on a street corner with no direction, obviously not the case here.
Think of the life lessons that Abby has made on her trip, I would think there isn't going to be much to shake her up on the hard...
I would also be more comfortable for my child to circumnavigate(with proper training) than to face NYC rush hour at 16.
Quote:
Long and short of it is this: she's going, regardless of what anyone else thinks. The decent thing to do is to at least wish her good luck.
That's about the bottom line...

Laura will set sail at wednesday. Her first leg will be to Portugal. Her father will accompany her on this leg to test the boat and make improvements. From Portugal she will set sail alone. Fair winds to Laura. www.lauradekker.nl

Well, cripes, I didn't know that. Kind of kills a lot of the "kids that age aren't mature enough" arguments we've seen here. Like I said in my post above, too much looking at the whole world through your own cultural biases in these discussions.

I don't know too much about the various sailboats out there (yet), but I do think that choosing a cruiser over a racer was a good idea... and also shows a nice degree of maturity in the choice. After all, it's not about how fast she gets around the world - it's about the successful conclusion of the trip. I cheered Abby on, as she attempted her trip; I only wondered at why it had to be a racing vessel... and why one so expensive! Plenty of nice boats available, out there, for a lot less money, that are already well equipped for such long trips. I hope the poor ending to her trip didn't sour Abby on sailing... I think it's amazing for someone to go out there, and try to live their dreams. I wish more of us had families that encouraged us to live our dreams.

I've known some 14 year olds who were very mature adults. At least, so you'd think, if you'd met them. I've also known plenty of people 30 years or older who should be sent back to kindergarten just to see how much more mature small children are than them.

Oh, yes: That "youngest to climb Everest" was a 13 year old boy, from California, just this past May. He has a goal of climbing the highest peak on all seven continents... and Everest was number 6. All that's left, is Antarctica. He must have started his climbing career some time ago.

By choosing to post the reply above you agree to the rules you agreed to when joining Sailnet.
Click Here to view those rules.

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the SailNet Community forums, you must first register. Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.Please note: After entering 3 characters a list of Usernames already in use will appear and the list will disappear once a valid Username is entered.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.